Now that it’s February, I think that it’s probably time to do a little update on how I’ve been doing with my 2013 New Year’s Resolutions (or goals, as I like to call them). As a reminder, here are the eight goals I chose for this year:
- Post on my blog at least five times a week
- Get kittens!
- Finish moving all of my stuff out of my parents’ house
- Get a real Christmas tree for Christmas 2013
- Continue tracking my spending every month
- Keep using my HGC & lose weight
- Make progress on getting my feet better
- Work on sleep consistency
I’m actually surprised at the progress I’ve made in only a month’s time! I love how goals keep me accountable — I love competing with myself, haha. And I definitely have that “teacher’s pet” personality. Even though I’m not in school anymore, I still try to finish my “homework” and get an A+ in everything 
- Post on my blog at least five times a week: I’ve done pretty well with this one. I don’t think that I’ve posted five times every week since January 1st, but it’s been most weeks (and the weeks I didn’t post five times, I posted at least four).
- Get kittens: We don’t have kittens yet, but we’ve been actively looking into it. We went on PetFinder.com and saw two kittens that we really liked, but I called the shelter a bunch of times and nobody answered
Brent has a lead on some other kittens we might be able to adopt, so we’ll see where that goes.
- Finish moving all of my stuff out of my parents’ house: HUGE progress on this one! I’ve packed everything that was in the basement, and I’ve done a lot of packing in my old bedroom, but there’s still a ton of work that needs to be done. I’m planning on going over again tomorrow and a few times next week to work on it some more.
- Get a real Christmas tree for Christmas 2013: Well, obviously, we haven’t made progress on this one, haha. But we’re still planning on doing this!
- Continue tracking my spending every month: Success so far! I even found out about this website Mint.com that does a really good job at tracking everything for you. I love how you can just sync up your bank accounts, and it lists all your transactions (and you can add in stuff that you paid cash for). You can create budgets & things to save up for, and use your own categories to organize everything exactly how you like it. Using this website is so much easier than creating my own spreadsheet every month — I love it!
- Keep using my HGC and lose weight: After my really awful doctor’s appointment a few weeks ago, I’ve been really lackluster in this department. It’s been really hard to psych myself up to lose more weight after she basically told me that I would never succeed on my own. I haven’t been good about tracking my food for my HGC — because of the appointment and also because it’s super annoying to track everything you eat every single day. I think I’ve still been actually eating pretty well, but I need to get my act together and start tracking again. Any tips on how to get myself motivated again?
- Make progress on getting my feet better: I made an appointment with the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts to get my feet checked out, which is coming up in two weeks. I’ve been going to physical therapy twice a week and doing my stretches every night. My legs have gotten much more flexible and the atrophying is gone, so I’m really happy about that, but the pain is still about the same.
- Work on sleep consistency. Eh. This is not going well. I keep intending to go to bed early, but then it just doesn’t happen. On Tuesday-Friday, Brent doesn’t get home from work until at least 7:45pm, and that’s after not seeing each other all day. We eat supper and then try to spend some time together, but by the time we’ve talked or watched TV for any sufficient amount of time, it’s really late (most of the time around midnight). And I can’t just go right from having fun with Brent to sleeping… I need some “me time” to read before bed, and then, before you know it, it’s already 1am at least. Not sure how to fix this…
Hi! Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. I'm Miranda, I love books, and I'm more than a little bit obsessed with goats.
I recently graduated with a degree in English from the University of Rhode Island and now I'm working as an editorial assistant at a publishing company, which is pretty much my dream job!
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Good job, girl! I love that you have a set of goals to work on the whole YEAR rather than just one month. It really allows you time to make progress. Keep it up! And as far as the sleep thing, you’re kind of in a tough spot.. Maybe just try to make it 15-30 minutes earlier little by little? Good luck with your goals for the next month!
I used to do goals every month, but I found that it was just too much goal-setting for me, haha. It was easy to get overwhelmed or just not focus on them enough (since I was working on so many). I like doing the yearly ones, but then I also think that that’s too long of a time. Maybe setting goals for six-month periods would work? Or just focusing on one big goal per month? I’m not sure — still trying to figure out what works best for me!
On losing weight, don’t let that doctor keep you down. If you do, you are only proving her right if nothing changes. Since you are limited in the exercise department and that is probably what is holding you back the most, I would immediately come up with an exercise plan before even more time passes. Then, just do it, get started. Walmart has exercise bikes…a couple decent looking ones for less than $200. In fact, I just bought one because it seems like every other week I am pulling something or my arches or the balls of my feet hurt. This way, I will now have a way to work out if I sustain another “injury.” Right now I just do aerobics 5x per week (and hike during the summer), but I can’t do it if I’m hurt. I can’t wait until I get the bike, I plan to watch tv while doing it!
You should also elimate any trigger foods you have in the house and get rid of any sugary/starchy/high carb/treat/processed foods from your diet because they just aren’t worth it. To me, one minute of satisfaction from any type of processed or junk food is not worth not losing weight. Also, get in touch with your body and try to eat intuitively – only when you are hungry. Sometimes the mind tells you to eat, but your body doesn’t. Do these things and you are bound to lose weight right away. Honestly, when I get in a rut, there are only two things that pull me out of it (1) seeing a loss on the scale and (2) thinking hard about the long-term damage I am doing to the inside of my body by not doing everything in my power to help myself get healthy and fit right now while I’m still young. Yes, everyone has their limitations, but when I think about it, there is always more I could be doing. You just have to reach inside yourself and find the strength you know is there.
You can do it!
Thanks for commenting! This is all really great advice
We’re actually getting our exercise bike next week, and I’m so excited about that! I’ve already been exercising a few times a week because of PT, but having the bike is really going to help. We’re going to put ours in front of the TV, too! I feel like I don’t really have a problem with “trigger” foods — I eat pretty healthily. But I do have a problem with portion size. I’ve been trying to be more careful about that lately, and I think I’ve gotten a bit better. I plan to keep working on it, though.
I track my daily eats and exercise on myfitnesspal. It’s really easy, they even have an app for your phone! I would suggest to try eating as much wholesome, nutrient dense food as you can while cutting out processed items. Sometimes I find that the more processed junk I eat the more I want it, no good. I love exercising! If your injury is only in your foot maybe you could try things like upper body weights. My personal trainer recently told me that building muscle mass is key to weight loss because it helps to speed up your metabolism!
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I try to stay away from counting calories because I have a history of disordered eating, but I do track my protein and fiber intake — and occasionally I’ll count calories for one day just to make sure I’m staying on track. I love weight training — you’re right, I should do more of it. I have strength moves that I do for my legs, but I should definitely start do free weight exercises for my arms again, too.